"Advocates told Business Insider that the number isn't the whole picture and excludes families who've given up out of frustration or can't use base centers that lack evening, weekend, or specialized care. "We can't say that we are a military that cares about our families if we pretend to provide childcare and then we've got a waitlist that's got 7,800 babies waiting on it," Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said to service senior enlisted leaders during last week's hearing."
"Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman acknowledged that the Navy still has roughly 1,400 children in unmet need status, while Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe said his service's waitlist stands at around 2,700, though there are efforts underway to open new spots. It is not clear how the remaining waitlisted children are divided between other services."
An estimated 7,800 children are on US military childcare waitlists, down from about 12,000 in 2024. Lawmakers called the backlog a quality-of-life problem during a congressional hearing. Advocates say the waitlist omits families who have given up or cannot use base centers that lack evening, weekend, or specialized care. Service leaders acknowledged unmet need: the Navy has roughly 1,400 children in unmet-need status and the Air Force's waitlist is about 2,700. In 2022 the Air Force had 95,000 children under five but capacity for about 23,000 in child development centers, and construction alone will not meet all demand.
Read at Business Insider
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